


Shadows

by ladyofbrileith



Category: Highlander: The Series, Stargate SG-1
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-05
Updated: 2012-06-05
Packaged: 2017-11-07 00:11:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,763
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/424739
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladyofbrileith/pseuds/ladyofbrileith
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Each dealing with their own loss and disappointment, Methos and Daniel reunite and rekindle an old flame to burn away the shadows of the past year. </p><p>[Post S1 of SG1 & S5 of HL]</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shadows

_Oxford, 1997_  
  
Methos studied the swirling depths before him. He felt himself dropping into it, lost in the dark amber glow. Duncan’s words echoed in his head over and over again.   
  
“We’re through.”  
  
All that had come after meant nothing to him against those words. He’d killed Silas. Duncan had killed Kronos—Methos’ love, Methos’ savior, Methos’ downfall. One love had killed the other, then walked away. And now Methos was truly alone.   
  
“We’re through.”  
  
He felt an odd sensation in his throat, an unfamiliar tightness. He coughed, trying to clear it, but it only tightened further as his mind filled with an image of Duncan’s warm brown eyes. It was just one more lesson...He should have known the Highlander wouldn’t be able to live with the truth. It wasn’t that we didn’t know, his inner voice whispered, it’s just that we didn’t want to care. Not until it was too late.  
  
“Um...I’ll have a pint of, of Guinness, I guess,” came a hesitant American voice from beside him.   
  
Methos looked up from his whiskey and studied the young man standing next to him. He blinked, focusing, and recognized the familiar face.   
  
“Daniel?” he asked, somewhat bemused by the reappearance of his old friend.  
  
The young man swung around, his blue eyes meeting Methos’ startled gaze. A smile split the man’s beautiful face. “Adam! I thought you’d left Oxford for the Sorbonne!” Daniel held out his hand and Methos grasped it, then pulled the young man in for a tight hug. Daniel returned the hug, burying his face in Methos’ neck for just a moment, before pulling back. “What are you doing here?”  
  
Methos grinned, his heart feeling slightly lighter. “Just visiting the old stomping grounds. You?”  
  
“Something similar. I’m working on a research project and remembered an old text I’d seen in the library here. I thought I’d see if it was as relevant as I...well, as I remembered.” Daniel looked flustered.   
  
“It’s good to see you, my friend. It’s been too long,” Methos’ eyes devoured the clean angles of Daniel’s face, shocked at how much he’d missed him.   
  
“Yeah. I missed you once I moved back to America,” Daniel confessed. He sat comfortably on the barstool next to Methos, his thigh brushing Methos’ leg. Methos froze a second, then let his thigh return the pressure.  
  
“You disappeared last year,” Methos commented, trying to distract himself from Daniel’s warmth and nearness, “dropped off the face of the earth.”  
  
Daniel blushed a bit as he studied his beer, then glanced sideways at Methos. “There were...special circumstances.”  
  
“So I heard,” Methos said lightly. “Something about aliens building the pyramids?”  
  
“Yeah, well,” Daniel wouldn’t meet his eyes.   
  
“It’s an interesting, and not implausible theory,” Methos replied, grinning at him.   
  
Daniel looked up at him, a light shining in his blue eyes. “You believe my theories? No one else did...”  
  
Methos reached out a hand and tucked a strand of Daniel’s floppy hair behind his ear. “Let’s just say I believe there are more secrets in the past than most people now can dream of.”  
  
Daniel grinned at him, excitement pouring through his veins. He wanted to tell Adam about how his theories had been proven correct, but he knew he couldn’t. The Air Force would disavow everything and Jack...well, Jack would...he’d lose Jack. Not that he had him, but he had his friendship, and if he were to violate the secrecy of the Stargate program, he’d lose even that. He swallowed the words that tried to escape his throat, and allowed himself to just smile.   
  
Methos smiled back, his light eyes searching Daniel’s for the secrets hidden there. In two thousand years, no one else had come close to discovering Egypt’s secrets. Yet this brilliant boy had deduced at least part of the truth in just a few years of studies. And he’d paid the price. His archaeological career had been ruined, his friends had turned away. Methos knew what Daniel had paid for his convictions, and his heart had mourned that he couldn’t comfort his friend with the truth. But something had changed in the last year. No longer was Daniel the defeated young man Methos had watched in that lonely lecture hall as scientist after scientist walked out on him. A new light burned in the man’s eyes. A heat, and an intensity and a sorrow that Methos longed to comfort.   
  
“Let’s get out of here,” Methos suggested. Daniel nodded and they paid their tab and walked out of the pub.   
  
Through Oxford’s quiet streets they wandered, reliving their days there, pretending to catch up on their lives. The silence grew strained as each strove to hide his secrets from the other.   
  
“What about that pretty redhead?” Methos finally asked, figuring relationships would be a safe conversational topic.   
  
Daniel frowned. “She didn’t believe me. Or in me. We ended it before the lecture.” He shrugged.   
  
“Anyone new?” Methos asked casually, too casually. His eyes roved over Daniel’s lanky frame, taking him in. Daniel felt his scrutiny and smiled at him, feeling the flirtatious look flitting through his eyes. For a moment, just a brief second, he allowed himself to forget, to feel, to think he was back in the peaceful past. Then it all came crashing back.  
  
“I got married,” he said abruptly, “but she’s...well.” He was stumped. How to explain without explaining? “She’s gone. For now. But I’m hoping...” He trailed off, thinking of his Sha’re and the demon that had possessed her soul and destroyed her innocent spirit.   
  
“I see,” Methos said softly, thinking he understood. “And while you hope?”  
  
Daniel thought of warm brown eyes and a smile that caused his soul to melt, hands rough and competent, and a chiseled mouth that begged to dominate. And a military mind that was as straight as an arrow for all Daniel could discern. He smiled bitterly. “There’s no one.”  
  
Methos watched the expressions play across Daniel’s face. “Liar,” he said softly. Daniel shot him a look that could have been described as a pout. “Who is she?”  
  
Daniel shook his head, “He. And it’s nothing. He’s not...he’s not interested. Just a friend.” He blushed.   
  
Methos took Daniel’s hand, feeling its heat as he laced his fingers through Daniel’s. “I know the feeling,” he murmured.  
  
“Do you?” Daniel stopped walking and faced Methos, not letting go of the Immortal’s hand.   
  
Methos quirked his lips. “Yes.”   
  
They stood in the street, staring at each other, each lost, alone and afraid. “I don’t think I said so before,” Methos said, his voice low as he held Daniel’s eyes, “but I’ve missed you.”  
  
Daniel smiled slightly, the intense light back in his eyes. “You could have come with me.”  
  
He couldn’t have, Methos thought. Daniel had been going to work with Dr. Jordan, world renowned archaeologist, and old friend of Dr. Benjamin Adams, the name Methos had cycled back to forty years before. He could have said he was his own son, but Dr. Jordan was too smart for that. Besides, to stay with Daniel and not tell him his secrets, or to watch him shrink back in fear, or grow resentful as he aged and Methos didn’t—it would have been too hard. So, he’d let him go.   
  
But he couldn’t say all that, so he smiled and said, “Should have.”  
  
Daniel leaned in and kissed Methos, softly, hesitantly, giving Methos the chance to back away. Instead, Methos wound his fingers through Daniel’s hair and pulled him in close, parting his lips and exploring the younger man’s mouth with his tongue. They pressed in close, devouring and drowning in the kiss as their tongues dueled and their hands searched and caressed. All the pain, all the rejection, all the loss of the past year poured through them and into the other as they sought comfort in the other’s familiar arms.  
  
Methos broke the kiss first. Daniel’s eyes were still closed, his lips parted and wet from the kiss, his fair skin flushed. He was the most beautiful thing Methos had seen in years, and he was waiting, eager, there for the taking. Methos cleared his throat, “Daniel?” It was both question and plea. Daniel’s eyes opened slowly and he focused on Methos’ face.  
  
“Adam?” he asked in return.   
  
“Come home with me?” Methos paused, felt his throat work around an unfamiliar word. “Please?”  
  
Daniel smiled a beautiful smile, relief flooding his face. Methos started walking, and Daniel followed.  
  
* * *  
Methos lay in his large bed, Daniel’s head pillowed on his chest. He listened to Daniel’s breath, slow and even. Sweat still glistened on his skin, making it slick under Methos’ fingers as he ran them up and down Daniel’s arm. He studied Daniel’s sleeping face, the small smile curving his mouth, lost in dreams more pleasant than his life had been the last year.   
  
What an amazing creature you are, Methos thought silently, as he took in his lover’s face. His lover. A bitter smile twisted Methos’ face. Once maybe, but not now. Tonight was all he’d have before he would have to send Daniel away.   
  
“It’s a shame you have to die,” Methos whispered, his heart already aching at the signs of time Daniel’s face had acquired in the years he’d known him. A shame, but a fact, and Methos didn’t know if he could do it again. Alexa’s death was still too fresh, as was Duncan’s rejection. Though he’d found comfort in Daniel’s arms, it wasn’t comfort he deserved. And it hadn’t been the love they were both longing for. Lust, need, comfort, affection, respect, admiration...yes.   
  
It could be love on his part, Methos knew. Only a fool couldn’t love Daniel. But Daniel couldn’t love Methos, because he didn’t know Methos. Maybe he loved Adam. Maybe. But Methos knew it wasn’t enough—Daniel would walk away from him if his past was revealed, just as Duncan had. Besides, Daniel deserved better. He deserved someone unsullied by a past of death and destruction, lies and secrets. Daniel deserved someone who could love him without fear or reservation.   
  
The look in Daniel’s eye, the bitterness of earlier came back to haunt Methos. He wanted to kill whoever had put it there, but instead he shifted down and placed a firm kiss on Daniel’s mouth, his hands roving lower as he roused the sleeping man. If tonight was all they could have, then for tonight he would give all he had to ease the shadows that haunted them both and carry them both to somewhere like home.


End file.
